In the hospitality industry, managing guest reservations efficiently and securely is paramount. One critical aspect of this management is preventing bookings from guests flagged as "Do Not Rent." These are individuals who, due to past issues, are not permitted to stay at your property. Ensuring that these guests cannot make reservations or check-in is crucial for maintaining a smooth operation and safeguarding the reputation of your establishment.
We'll delve into the features and processes within Visual Matrix designed to identify and block such guests, ensuring that your property operates without the complications that can arise from these prohibited bookings.
1. Assign a "Do Not Rent" status to the guest
The first step is to assign the status to the guest. This can be done through their reservation while the guest is either pending arrival or in-house. However, once the guest has checked out, you won’t be able to update this information through the reservation, so you'll need to do so via the Guest Profile section in Sales & Marketing.
The Guest Profiler section in the Sales and Marketing module allows you to update and assign specific status types to guest profiles, such as VIP, Member, or Do Not Rent. This functionality helps you categorize and manage guest profiles based on their status, enabling you to customize your services and interactions in alignment with each guest’s designated profile type.
2. Creating a Reservation for a "Do Not Rent" guest
While creating a reservation for a "Do Not Rent" guest is not something you would intend to do, Visual Matrix has safeguards in place to prevent this. When creating a reservation, after entering the guest's name, avoid using the "Add New" option. Instead, carefully review the names that appear and select the existing guest from the list if they are already in your system. Using "Add New" may create duplicate records and, more importantly, bypass the warning that would notify you if the guest has a "Do Not Rent" status.
Keep in mind that while the warning will not prevent the reservation, it will appear and require acknowledgment.
3. Checking-In a "Do Not Rent" guest
But just in case, Visual Matrix has an additional safeguard. If a reservation is created for a guest with a "Do Not Rent" status, another warning will appear during the check-in process. This secondary alert serves as a crucial reminder, requiring acknowledgment before check-in can proceed. The user will be presented with a choice: either continue with the check-in or return to the reservation, ensuring that the status is emphasized and the decision is made with full awareness.
4. Finally, tracking who checked in the "Do Not Rent" guest is recorded in the modification log
As a final safeguard, this feature helps prevent future occurrences and provides an opportunity to train the staff involved. If a "Do Not Rent" guest is checked in, the action is logged in the reservation modification log, along with the name of the operator who performed the check-in.
5. Locate All Guests with a "Do Not Rent" Status
It's a good idea to periodically review the guests who have this status.
To do this, go to Sales & Marketing > Marketing > Guest, where you can export a comprehensive range of information about all the guests in your database. You can also refine this data based on various parameters.